Getting to grips with trafficking

South Africa has committed itself to developing specialised legislation to combat the trafficking of human beings within, to and from South Africa. Between May and June 2006, the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) invited public comment on draft trafficking legislation; yet we still know relatively little about trafficking in South Africa. There are no official statistics on trafficking. A handful of studies on trafficking have been conducted but these have been limited in size and geographical scope. The studies have also been compromised by imprecise definitions and a bias towards sexual exploitation, raising questions about their usefulness for policy design. There has been no research on trafficking either for the purposes of labour exploitation or for the harvesting of organs or body parts. Information is thus urgently needed on: the extent of the problem, including the number of South Africans who are trafficked to other countries; the types of trafficking that exist in South Africa and the nature of the exploitation to which victims are subjected; the profile and motivations of victims and traffickers; the factors that contribute both to trafficking and to making some individuals more vulnerable than others to being trafficked; the extent of prevention-related activities and support available to victims; and South Africans' attitudes to, and knowledge of, trafficking.